Rivera Knuck Tre vs. Splawn Nitro ? Similar amps or not?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heritage Softail
  • Start date Start date
H

Heritage Softail

New member
Been considering trading KT for Nitro. Have not been able to play a Nitro. The clips and configuration seem kinda like a Knuck Tre.

Anyone played both for any time? The non master volume channel on the KT is important to me for cleanish blues and Dire Straits tone. The KT high gain ch is good for me. Dark, evil, punchy. Gain down to 2 or 3 and it does classic rock.

Any words on the Nitro for those applications? I have jammed and Quick Rod and got serious chub on that amp. Love me some modded marshall mojo. After YT listening it seems to me like the Nitro and KT are similar, with the KT being a little more dark modern metal, almost like a Mesa Roadster.

I have numerous opps to trade the KT to Nitro owners and have had opps for a QuickRod trade in the past.

Equipment overlap areas? Ideas? Playing from Dire Straits thru Metallica. Happy with my gear but open to new ideas.
 
I had a Tre for a little while. To be honest I didnt like the Tre that much..... The gain on the tre is nowhere near as clear as the Nitro. The Nitro is somewhat versatile but its pretty aggressive and metal sounding so I wouldnt say its the best option for lower gain stuff however it can do it well. If you can trade your Tre for a Nitro I would suggest doing it.
 
I had both. The Nitro has killer bottom end. Absolutely crushing bottom end thwack with KT88's. The Nitro sounds more like a hot rodded Marshall to me. Prefered the clean ch on the Nitro, could get some decent grit(newer clean channel). I honestly preffered the Rivera, the only reason I sold it was because it was tonaly close to my Avenger.
 
Ive now played thru a competition and a nitro. The Nitro didnt do it for me as much as the competetion. The K tre is a great amp. More gain then ive ever heard in an amp. Im not sure why it doesnt get any love. The nitro is kinda just outside the hot marshall sound being very high gain and modern sounding. The riv to me was what a recto shouldve been. Doesnt have that recto fizz saturation but the character of the two are simular fro my experiance.
 
I had a Splawn Nitro that was loaded with KT-77's and have the Rivera KR7 which is a spin of the K-tre....

I didnt really click with the Nitro.
Tone seemed 'weird' or dry.....not quite sure.
I would take the K-tre over it anyday.
Just my 2 cents. ;)
 
Yeah my KR7 cleans are FENDER to say the least.
Not sure how the Nitro was........
it didnt stick around long.
 
OK. Thanks for the feedback. And I agree, the Knuck Tre does not get much love. Funny you say it is what the new Rec should have been. I sold my Rectifier after getting the KT. Love Mesa and don't slag on equipment on my end. Just seemed like Rivera took a Rectifier, added an awesome non-master volume clean channel and then put steriods in the high gain stack.

I'm keeping it. I am probably actually lucky to have stumbled across this amp. No YT vid is like playing it in person.
 
I loved the KTre. I sold it to a friend of mine while I was going through a whole bunch of amps.

I had I think in this order
Trem-o-verb
RV100
Ktre 212 reverb combo
Soldano Lucky 13
VHT Deliverance
Bogner XTC
Splawn QR
Pitbull UL
SLO

they all had their good points but some were clear winners for me. A lot of people are splawn lovers and the amp sounded good, it might kill a few marshalls but it's no slo killer. the reverb on the orange is almost unbeatable and that thing had a ton of gain on tap.

The Ktre I liked better then the lucky 13 and the trem-o-verb. it was voiced differently then the rv100 but it's got better cleans and much more gain.
Probably as much gain on tap if not more then the Deliverance except the deliverance is a little more raw while the Ktre is more compressed and smoother. The UL and the slo are in another league but at their price points that's to be expected. that being said if the price was right i'd snatch up another ktre in a second. It's clean channel is unbeatable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top